Tuesday, May 22, 2012

In my travels and life as a CRM guy, I hear it a lot. “We’re just not ready to invest in a CRM
(software that tracks everything that’s been done with prospects, leads,
customers, etc.). We don’t have the
time, the money, the staff, [fill in the blank here].” I’m going to use this opportunity to start a
series of articles where I address each of these items and others. The bottom line here is that you’re never
ready. I equate the jump to CRM to
becoming a homeowner – you’re never really going to be ready, but one day it
will sneak up on you and you’ll have to find the means as you’ve outgrown the
apartment (or your parents place). As
with CRM, these needs jump out at different times, some much sooner than others
(was never huge on living at home personally).

This article I will touch on cost, only as I’m always
sensitive to budget constraints and there’s no better comparison between homes
and CRM – how much can I afford? Good
news here is that you’ll actually see the return on your investment much sooner
than buying a house. Like houses though,
CRM’s come in all shapes and sizes, different prices, and needs – can you move
right in or do will we need some construction?
This of course allows you to find the home/CRM that works best for you
and best fulfills your needs. There are
starter CRM packages out there for the new owners as well as the expert
packages that have been saving a long time (yup, I’m going to beat this house
theme into the ground). In either case,
after careful analysis (and some help) you should be able to find the package
that is right for you and meets your needs.
Consider the experts Realtors for your CRM.

To battle the cost idea, an example comes to mind which
happened to one of my favorite clients.
He had some hesitation to the cost of implementing a CRM package, but
knew he needed to do something. The
costs were daunting – new server (this happened to be an on premise package),
software licensing, training time, consulting costs for configuration, import
of data, etc. However, we created
workflows in his CRM to automate some of the tasks that he was really bad
at. Essentially, he was bad at following
up with clients and he knew this – he needed something/someone to do it for
him. We created a simple process to
automate an email for those that had an overdue balance, sending out an
automatic email in the morning, nothing huge, just a friendly reminder. He told me two weeks later that the single
process of sending an email to those clients had single handedly paid for all
of his CRM costs including my time with him, his server, and licensing. People appreciated the friendly follow up,
didn’t realize that they owed a balance, but more importantly, they wanted him
to come back out and do some more work for him.
Why I love the follow up with any system is that you’re reminding
clients that you’re still there which in further reminds them of other needs
they may have.

Will this example above be what happens to everyone? I wish, but unfortunately no. However, the returns will come. Better tracking of sales and what’s coming in
the pipeline, never losing track of the communications between you and your
customers, being able to market directly to the right clients based on
interests, industry, or existing products – all these items may not have a
solid dollar amount to track against your investment, but it is there. As with your old apartment, you’re going to
outgrow that yellow pad of paper with all your “to-do’s” and you’re going to
simply need something more to move you to the next step.